Union of Desires

A couple clasp each other in the height of sexual passion,
their desires finding sudden, mutual, powerful release in
orgasm.

Growing beyond the Reacher of Desires, the couple in this card
have learned that satisfying another's sexual urges is the
quintessential erotic experience. There is profound mutuality here.
His orgasm is triggered by hers, and hers by his. They clutch at each
others' bodies with a kind of madness, not to enhance their own
arousal, but to feel their partner respond, to feel the feedback of
intensity, the amplifying passion of reciprocal arousal.

Our culture teaches us that sexual union is the exclusive
privilege of those with glamorous bodies--the movie stars, the
fashion models, the pin-ups. The Union of Desires image in the
Intimacy Tarot gently stretches these stereotypes. The woman, though
not obese, is fleshy and corpulent. Her lover is slender, with
delicate features, challenging the image of machismo that looms over
male sexuality. Most importantly, neither of these people is posing
for a camera. They are lost in orgasm, lost in each other.

What is worse, centuries of moralizing from the pens of
sexually dysfunctional clerics has left Western culture with a huge
complex of guilt surrounding sexual union. This legacy has been
somewhat abated in recent decades, but we are still reeling in the
aftermath of its crusade of guilt.

The sexual impulse, when it matures, and its desparation is
turned toward gratifying one's partner, becomes the most sacred of
rites. The primal, fiery energy of sexual desire is focused on the
lover, surrendered to the lover, dissipated within the body of the
lover. There is no more innocent communion than this, no greater
vulnerability or sacrifice. Sex is holy, when it is a crying,
yearning, gift of the soul.